Multiplayer meta

[RossMarBow]

I noticed theirs not really a thread dedicated to the meta in multiplayer.

A place to discuss what planes are meta and what tactics are meta.
Air to air and air to ground.
Tanks too.
This isn't a place to complain though. 
Just a resource of commonly used or inventive tactics.

I will start:

    The IL-2 model 1941 is the best IL-2 as the later models become heavier and loose excellent rearward visibility. 
On Finnish server in the early sets the il-2 makes an excellent platform for depot defence as it absolutely shreds ground attack planes and can even put up a good fight against fighters.
Hover at about 1km over depots until you see an attacking formation come in, with a big E advantage your slower speed is not an issue.
Don't take max fuel or any bombs. Take care of the engine during the climb.
I leave mix at 100% and climb at pressure 90 rpm 90 which disables the 10min boost mode. While loitering I dial rpm down to 69% to cool the engine. 

It also makes a good addition as an escort to a bombing raid (with or without bombs), it is able to keep up with the big bombers and will give the defenders a big surprise.
With its heavy armament and lots of ammo you can do a lot of damage up close, but it is also a great platform for sniping which comes in handy if you are up against faster planes.

[FuriousMeow]

The only reason Call of Pooty type games have "meta" is because the devs constantly change the weapon characteristics, and not to be in line with modeling accuracy to real world variables - just to rotate weapons players use. 

 

Not sure "meta" really makes sense in air combat sims.

[BlitzPig_EL]

The only "meta" is gaming the engine management in a non historic way to keep the engines from rapid, unscheduled disassembly.

[ShamrockOneFive]

My thinking on the concept of 'meta' in multiplayer games is that this is the sort of thing that emerges when the number of competitive variables is low. With a standard Call of Duty three channel map layout and the emphasis of speed and short lines of sight means that factors such as ADS time and TTK combine to make for a small number of slightly more effective combinations that stand above the others.

 

With an air combat sim like this one, the number of variables is much higher and your battlespace is dramatically large and in 3 dimensions instead of functionally 2.

 

While some aircraft tend to stand above the rest, there are other factors that tend to make a bigger difference. Four well flown P-40s with good teamwork and situational awareness can defeat a similar number of Bf109F-4s with poor situational awareness and coordination. The Bf109F-4 is better in nearly every attribute but it lost. It's not meta. But air combat is often like that. I spent a ton of time on Combat Box flying the Spitfire IX. It's a great fight but its not quite as good in many "meta" attributes to the late war Axis types that we were fighting against. It didn't matter. What mattered was teamwork, good situational awareness, and positioning.

 

There's too many variables to establish a meta in the same way that you would in say a first person shooter.

[354thFG_Rails]

The P-47 is the meta plane in game. Fly it more, you’ll be happy. 

[Thorne]

It's clear a number of posters disagree with your thesis that IL2 has a meta, but I actually agree with you OP.

 

While it's true that things like teamwork, pilot experience/skill, and SA are ultimately more important than the aircraft, that's true in all competitive online games with a 'meta' to a certain extent. For example, back when the SPR was meta in Warzone you could still do perfectly well with other rifles, particularly ones your had a lot of hours on, but it was generally agreed that the SPR gave you the edge. And while Activision tweaks game parameters a lot more than the IL2 devs do, it still happens here in terms of flight model and ballistics updates, just much more slowly.

 

IL2 has aircraft that I would consider 'meta' for air to air on the servers:

The G6-Late with MW50, and 109 F4 seem to be 'meta' for dogfighting Axis on Berloga for example.

Spit Mk 14 and P51B seem 'meta' for Allied side on Combat Box/Finnish box when people get sick of trolling around in the P47 and really want to win some fights.

 

I personally like the 190 D9/P51D if I really want to fly responsibly and maximize K/D, but will hop in a G6 Late or Spit IX if I want to do cowboy ----.

[kestrel79]

Yep I think flight sims it's more about how skilled the virtual pilot is than say like CoD and using a gun that's over powered.

 

I've been smoked by really good pilots online flying crap planes and I'm in the better plane and a terrible dogfighter...I'm gonna lose every time to the better pilot using better tactics.